At 95, instrumentalist still offering musical gift to God’s service

PADUCAH—God gave Ilene Robertson a gift, and she’s given it back Sunday after Sunday for 70 years at First Baptist Church in Paducah.

Robertson, now 95, has been the church’s organist since the day the organ arrived in 1955, and before that, she was the pianist.

Ilene Robertson, now 95, has been the church’s organist since the day the organ arrived in 1955.

While she started playing the piano at age 10 for the junior department in Sunday school, Robertson doesn’t count that as part of her service because “that wasn’t official.”

She learned to play the piano as a child while growing up in Dallas. When she and her family moved to Paducah, her aunt, Ella Stokes, was the church pianist.

At age 15, Robertson was elected the church’s assistant pianist, and when the Stokes family moved the next year, she was named pianist.

Two years later, however, she left to attend Wayland Baptist College, where she played in chapel services. When she returned to Paducah in 1934, she again was elected pianist, a post she held until 1939, when she married Carroll Robertson.

After several years of service in World War II and his career, they returned to Paducah in 1946, and she has played the piano or organ since these last 63 years.

Although not initially thrilled about the prospect of learning to play the organ, she soon took on the task with determination. After the church ordered an organ, she began making the 120-mile trip to Lubbock each week for lessons. After she felt she had learned most of the fundamentals, she then continued to teach herself from instructional manuals.

All 70 of her years of service to the West Texas church have been as a volunteer. Her giving spirit and the longevity of her service are impressive to her pastor.

“Ilene’s record of service is amazing,” Pastor Ronnie Lambert said. “She is an example to all of us of what it truly means to live a life devoted to serving the Lord.”

Serving the Lord has been central to the 70 years as a church instrumentalist, Robertson said.

“Service to the Lord is dominant in all of it,” she said. “That’s the way I feel in my heart. I’m supposed to be doing it.”

Robertson has fallen about 20 times, and each time she wonders if it will be the one that stops her. But so far, she’s always managed to recuperate by Sunday.

There have been many funerals during her tenure—one pastor, after checking through some records years ago, told her she had played for more than 2,000 funerals.

“I told him, ‘I’ve got a real good secretary who knows, but I don’t,’” she said with a chuckle.

While she doesn’t know how many funerals she has played for, she does feel they have been a special part of her ministry.

“I really enjoy—now that’s not the word, but I enjoy funerals because I feel like you’re helping a family individually, that you’re comforting them,” she said.

First Baptist Church recently honored Robertson for seven decades of service. “Ilene is just an extremely special Christian woman who has spent her life serving the Lord while playing music in his church,” Lambert said. “The whole church family is proud of Ilene and is appreciative of her many years of service to the Lord with this church family.”

When asked how she felt about the celebration, “It made me feel 95,” she said with a laugh.